“A situation? What do you mean?” he says more sternly now. He turns to face me as I move aside to reveal the small, red-haired girl.
Her eyes go wide, and I can feel her tension from where I stand.
“Who is this?” the King remarks.
“She appeared. By the gate.” I say simply.
“What do you mean by the gate? The gate doesn’t work? No one can get through the gate, you know that, Rothwyn.” The sound of my formal name makes me stiffen.
He rises to stand now, and I move in front of the girl on instinct.
“With all due respect, she didn’t exactly arrive here armed.” I offer politely.
“But it doesn’t work anymore? I had them all sealed shut. They all died off. You saw it happen,” he says, dragging a hand through his hair. “What does this mean?” He turns to the girl now. She clenches her fists tightly, and her breath hitches.
“Who sent you?” the King asks, a trace of paranoia in his tone. I can feel his anger rising. He doesn’t like not knowing a situation.
Control is power.
The room falls silent.
No one mutters a word as we wait for the girl to speak.
In what feels like a very long gap of silence, she finally takes a breath before quietly muttering.
“Um. No one. I’m…so sorry, I…don’t know what’s going on,” she says.
Her voice is steadying. Too gentle for a world full of decay and loss. Her eyes tear up as her breathing picks up in a panic. I turn to Kael, a silent declaration for him to help her. Kael reaches to grab her shoulder.
“What is your name?” he asks her, giving her a small smile.
“Elodie… Elodie Hawthorne,” she says to him, taking a deep breath.
“Who sent you, Elodie?” the King shouts over Kael, becoming agitated.
When she doesn’t respond, he slams his fist on his desk. I glance at Kael, who shakes his head at me.
Kael turns back to Elodie and asks gently, “Do you know how you got here? Where did you come from?”
Elodie turns to look at me, her eyes searching. I have tortured far too many men in search of a threat, beaten them until their faces slackened with defeat. This girl’s eyes tell me everything her voice does not.
She turns back to Kael now.
“Please forgive me, I... I don’t…I have no idea… I mean… I was just.” She shakes out both her hands before continuing, “I was clearing away the overgrowth because… he asked me to. Mark asked me to, because Kate phoned in sick and then. Well, there was a stone, and it glowed and then… there was this butterfly-”
I cut her off.
“A butterfly?”
She turns to face me now, gulping before nodding her head at me.
“What colour was this butterfly?” I ask her plainly.
I glance at the King, whose jaw tightens, and then at Kael, who looks just as confused.
“Blue,” she whispers aloud.
The room goes completely silent.
